tim
26th of June 2005 (Sun), 04:37
As is starting to be my habbit, i'm going to share what I learned, in the hope that it helps someone else. Here are a few tips based on my experience this last weekend, doing family portraits of my own family.
- The background is VERY important. Go for a neutral colored background, preferably without a pattern.
- Wallpaper is reflective, which is bad. Paint is probably even more reflective, fabric is usually not.
- Arranging groups is hard to do well, at least if you want to make an interesting shot.
- You'll probably need more space than you think, so make sure you have a wide enough lens, and plenty of width available on your background.
- Plan the group shots you want taken beforehand.
- Children get bored quickly, take the photos as quickly as you can.
- Take a few shots of each group, as people blick and look away. Even then you might have to do a "head transplant" on a person or two.
- Before you take a shot, make sure you announce it, and make sure EVERYONE is looking towards the camera.
- Try to avoid having people behind the camera if possible. If there are, make doubly sure to announce each photo so everyone's looking at the camera.
- Take photos on the count of 2 occasionally, or when people aren't expecting it.
- Don't use a lightsphere, the light falloff at the edges is too much. If you do and get dark edges the vignetting control in CS2 RAW can help brighten the edges.
- Beware of glasses, the glass and the rims will reflect. I don't have a good solution for this, I would suspect that using a flash that's well seperated from the camera would help (ie higher than a flash bracket), or lighting from the sides. Another idea is to get people to tilt their glasses down so the light doesn't reflect off them.
- Don't stand people right in front of a wall, leave some space if you can, but beware of shadows falling on it.
- Use a spirit level to make sure you have your camera level.
- The background is VERY important. Go for a neutral colored background, preferably without a pattern.
- Wallpaper is reflective, which is bad. Paint is probably even more reflective, fabric is usually not.
- Arranging groups is hard to do well, at least if you want to make an interesting shot.
- You'll probably need more space than you think, so make sure you have a wide enough lens, and plenty of width available on your background.
- Plan the group shots you want taken beforehand.
- Children get bored quickly, take the photos as quickly as you can.
- Take a few shots of each group, as people blick and look away. Even then you might have to do a "head transplant" on a person or two.
- Before you take a shot, make sure you announce it, and make sure EVERYONE is looking towards the camera.
- Try to avoid having people behind the camera if possible. If there are, make doubly sure to announce each photo so everyone's looking at the camera.
- Take photos on the count of 2 occasionally, or when people aren't expecting it.
- Don't use a lightsphere, the light falloff at the edges is too much. If you do and get dark edges the vignetting control in CS2 RAW can help brighten the edges.
- Beware of glasses, the glass and the rims will reflect. I don't have a good solution for this, I would suspect that using a flash that's well seperated from the camera would help (ie higher than a flash bracket), or lighting from the sides. Another idea is to get people to tilt their glasses down so the light doesn't reflect off them.
- Don't stand people right in front of a wall, leave some space if you can, but beware of shadows falling on it.
- Use a spirit level to make sure you have your camera level.